Tagged again!!!

To do:1. Pick up the nearest book.

2. Open to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

...................

1. Pediatric Neuroimaging ...by James Barkovich....which i was using to make my upcoming presentation on neurometabolic disorders.

2. Page 123.....random shit on...."toxic and metabolic disorders"......coincidental wouldnt you say.

3. Line 5 : Positron emission tomography and SPECT may be useful in establishing the diagnosis of Neuronal Ceroid Lipofushinosis.

4. Next 3 lines........

Severe reduction in metabolism in all the cortical and sub-cortical structures have been shown in 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET studies. Regional analysis shows marked bilateral hypometabolism , particularly in the calcarine , lateral occipital , temporal cortices and in the thalami. In infantile NCL , SPECT using 99 Tc-hexamethypropyleneamineoxime showed bilateral anterior frontal, posterior temporoparietal and occipital hypoperfusion.

5. Whom to tag...ok ....Rupeet ,Shyam , Ms Solo , Bhishmadev and Ms Phoebe....and I was tagged by Ankita.

The Sound of Her Wings

Life, at times shocks you into stunned silence….for all your misplaced claims of “been there…seen that”…..and unemotive cold-heartedness…..there are times in the practice of this wretched profession, where you are reduced to a helpless pathetic bystander…..left shaking your head at the enormity of all that we yet do not comprehend….and have no answers for.
The other day I saw an 18 year old boy stricken with Ewing’s sarcoma….a particularly aggressive malignancy of the bone, and pretty much incurable at that. Wherefore the youngster….who should have had the whole world before his feet….in an instant finds himself staring at a tumultous 6-8 months, maybe less , of life. Already stricken with the debilitating course of the disease, as the days progress, the cancer will slowly eat away into his bones, causing sustained pain of a nature that cannot be explained to one who has not felt it....and through the course of it all , he will be given chemotherapy that will drive away the appetite , cause intense nausea and wretching along with complete hair loss and a mileu of other problems.
Then there was the newborn infant, born prematurely at 30 weeks of gestation, who came through a torrid spell of nearly fatal birth asphyxia followed by sepsis, kept only by some extraordinarily heroic neonatal care – yet to what purpose??? The child is likely to have suffered irreversible hypoxic brain damage during his cataclysmic perinatal course….which in all probability shall culminate in one or all of the following: severe mental retardation, partial to complete hearing loss , severe lag in motor development ( i.e. inability to sit up , walk , grasp objects and so on)….to make matters worse , he is likely to survive to well into his 2nd decade if not further….pretty much as a human vegetable….you cant help ask yourself….is life the only thing that is sacrosanct , and does the quality of the same have no bearing whatsoever !
For a moment then, leave aside all the possible nefarious possibilities and unethical practices, but purely from the so-called humanitarian view (let aside even science) , I think there should be a provision to allow one to pull the plug…on his own , or a dear one’s inevitably wasted and traumatized existence. I can scarce fathom the inexplicable desire to clutch vainly at the flimsiest of straws.

If this is sanctity….grant me damnation!

“Death is before me today,
Like the recovery of a sick man.
Like going forth into a garden after sickness.
Death is before me today,
Like the odor of myrrh,
Like sitting under a sail in a good wind.
Death is before me today,
Like the course of a stream
Like the return of a man
From the war galley to his house.”

Walk with her , humanity….hear the gentle beating of the mighty wings.

On Family....

" The bonds of family bind both ways. they bind us up, support us, help us , and they also are a bond from which it is difficult , perhaps impossible to extricate oneself"

I wonder how many people really find solace in their family....and how many just go along with the whole 'family' -thing because its the socially acceptable thing to do.........and for the previleged few , of course , the family is like a gilded insurance policy - a veritable stariway to heaven.
Well hypocrisy is the human way after all.....thoughts and convictions are scarcely meant to be practised in the eternal struggle for social acceptance and recognition.

The Crime of being 'Single'

It is a veritable crime to be single in today’s world. A status of single entails that you have nothing to do , no passions , obviously no commitments and therefore are the natural choice to do all the undesirable , time consuming , and ‘after work hours’ jobs that the more privileged ( read married…committed…betrothed and so on) lot cannot take on.

I have lost count of the number of times people have ‘requested’ me to do a bum job assigned to them…..

…. “ I have to go shopping for jewellery with my wife”

….. “Its festival day tomorrow ,and the gods will be displeased if I don’t celebrate it with my family. You of course are an atheist , without any family and a culture-phobe at that ; so of course , it doesn’t matter to you, does it ?”….well , thank you for kindly forgetting that my free time and solitude matters to me…..and whether I use it to declare my infallible servitude to god or use it just to lie supine on my bed and stare at the ceiling is none of your bloody business!!!

….. “ Distant cousins of the third degree are visiting and hence….”

….. “my child’s birthday party”…well excuse me for not feeling thrilled and wishing your child the best of health!!!!
….. the most exasperating one …. “its Feb 14th tomorrow”….as if the tyrant sitting up above has promised special sustained orgasms for those who join in the mass stupidity of other humans in the nauseating celebration of ‘luurrvvee’ with their partners.

…As if these ridiculous explanations were not enough, so-called single individuals are treated with an extraordinary racist outlook…almost as if to say…. “you wanted to be in our position , you’re dying to be in our position….and since you obviously are unlucky or incapable , you deserve to pay for your utter worthlessness in society by serving more worthy citizens like us.”
The venerable organization where I serve takes this sentiment to further extremes..... married people are entitled houses , more luggage allowance during moves , extra allowances in general….and the crowning glory….given more leeway in leave.
Poor guys like us are left to face downright insulting remarks … “Why on earth do you want leave , you’re not even married. Look at him, he has a wife and a small child.”


Well, I have a dream…and not much unlike that of Martin Luther King Jr. That some day I and others like me shall be granted equal status in society , and this without having to remove the ‘single’ tag from my bio-data. That one day our abuse in society will be viewed on an equal platform as that of homosexuals , the non-whites and the socially backward.
To the so-called privileged classes I can only point my extended middle digit and the words of John Lennon…
“You may say I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one!”